2015: A Year in Review

Hello!! We are finally back from our Christmas trip to see my parents in TN. We spent 10 glorious days up there and we were so sad to leave but it's good to get home and be productive around the house. It also helped that we came home to a house and not an apartment - I would've been worried about where we'd fit all our new goodies if we were still in our old apartment! I'll talk more about our Christmas in the next coming days but I wanted to recap our year on the last day of 2015.

I cannot believe that 2015 is over - we had an amazing year filled with fun and adventure (don't worry, we had our fair share of trials). Looking back on the last few years of being married, it truly gets better and better as the years go on. Get ready for a full 2015 recap...

January
After looking back at old posts, I've come to the conclusion that January was pretty boring lol We had no exciting events other than re-signing our lease at our apartment, booking a trip to Disney, cooking and watching some awards shows. So boring and therefore, no pictures for January.

February
We started off the month with the Super Bowl and I did one of my first fashion posts.

We had a date night at Downtown Disney and I bought my first lotto ticket at the ripe age of 23.

We celebrated our 2nd married Valentine's day with a fun picnic in the park! 

We updated our 2nd bedroom/office/catch all room at our apartment. Part 1 & Part 2

We volunteered with the Special Olympics at a town that, unknowingly to us, we would soon call home. 

I took a business trip to Houston for some training and we were able to catch up with an old friend

Our last big event in February was a weekend trip to visit my brother and sister-in-law. This was the trip they told us they were pregnant and we were over the moon excited for them!!

March

We kicked off March with a Hirst family dinner so John and Lauren could tell Stephen's parents and other brother that they were expecting.

Later we got to see Stephen's college friends, Joe and Lauren get married in a beautiful wedding in Tampa. While there, we were able to stop in and see my high school friend, Susannah and her little family :)

The next weekend, I got to see my friends from college and celebrate the bride-to-be, Camilla. We had her bridal shower and bachelorette party in the same weekend since she lives in AL. 

At the end of the month, I took a business trip to GA and oddly enough, ran into an old friend at Chick Fil A!

I closed out March with a baby shower for one of my co-workers!

April
I kicked off the month in style with a Nicholas Cage April Fool's prank for Stephen. (I've got them stored up for 2016 ;))

We promptly followed it up with a trip to Okeechobee for Easter where I learned to mow the grass on the Hustler.

We had a big weekend - I threw a baby shower at work for my co-worker, I finally got a new phone which meant my pictures got better and we snuck over to Disney for a fun pool date.

We took a weekend trip to Disney with my family to celebrate my sister's 21st birthday. I followed up our trip with a "how to do Disney" post in which, I shared all our tips and tricks for conquering Disney World.

At the end of the month, we started to look for houses in a nearby town. We were so excited to finally be looking at houses and settling down.

May

The first weekend in May, we drove down to Ft. Myers for my best friend Camilla's wedding. This was the most beautiful wedding I'd ever been to and we had an amazing time. I was so happy to be apart of it.

Mid May, we went back down to Ft. Lauderdale for the gender reveal of our sweet niece. Stephen and I were hoping for a boy but we were thrilled it was a girl! This weekend, we also found out that our offer was accepted on our house and we were on our way to becoming homeowners!

At the end of the month, we headed up to Chattanooga to spend Memorial Day weekend with my family and see my parent's new house! 

June 
June was the month of the house. We moved in the 3rd weekend so we basically spent most of the month getting things packed and ready to go. We managed a few date nights along the way :)

We finally closed on our house June 19 and moved in the next day. We are so blessed we found this house and 6 months later, we couldn't be more happy with it.

After being in the house for a week, we packed up and headed to vacation with my family in Hilton Head, South Carolina. While on vacation, we celebrated Stephen's 26th birthday, July 4th, my parent's 28th anniversary and our 2nd anniversary.

A few days later, we celebrated my 24th birthday and I did a get-to-know-me post to celebrate.

My boss threw me a little birthday get together and Stephen broke out the grill for our first legal cookout (we weren't allowed to grill at the apartment, but we did).

I began our "Home Tour Tuesday" series and showed off our new house - things look mighty different today!

We did tons of work on the house which included hanging up a few gallery walls and painting my new monogram that Stephen got for my birthday.

At the end of the month, I took a business trip to Atlanta, we had our first house guests, John and Lauren and my friend Amanda was able to stop in and see the house.

August
In August, we had our all employee meeting at a local air boat place and they let us hold a baby alligator.

My sister sent me some amazing artwork she did to help complete my office and we hosted Stephen's parents for dinner so they could see the house.

Towards the end of the month, we took a girls trip to the beach to celebrate one of Lauren's last weekends before becoming a mommy.

The last weekend in August, we did tons of home projects, I did a girls night out at church and we got the house ready for fall.

September
I kicked off the month with a tassel garland tutorial. It was super fun and easy and I honestly planned on making more tassel garlands for the holiday season but it never happened... maybe next year.

We finally bought Stephen a grill in time for my parents to come visit for Labor Day weekend.

We decorated the house for fall and enjoyed some fall activities.

I went public with my snapchat and had a business trip to Disney that Stephen got to join me for one night.

I won free Disney tickets from work so we cashed them in.

The last weekend, we celebrated baby Siena at Lauren's baby shower. I also did a diaper cake tutorial for the diaper cake that I made them.

October

We kicked off the month with a rocket launch and my company's annual UF tailgate. My sister was able to join us this year and we had a blast!

I won a marketing award at work and was treated to dinner and then that weekend we went to work on the yard.

Took another quick business trip to Atlanta and then got to see The Martian with Stephen's company.

I started my outfit roundup posts.

I was able to go back to UCF and experience our homecoming tradition of Spirit Splash. We also hosted some new friends for the first time for a cook out. 

We had our first Halloween in our new house and loved handing out candy to everyone.

November
November was probably the most memorable month out of the year. We welcomed our niece and god daughter, Siena on November 3rd.

I finally found the sofa table I'd been looking for and I love it. We also did some projects for my office and took our Christmas pictures. 

My friend and I were deemed the new safety people at work.

We headed up to FSU for our annual family trip.

We established our Christmas bucket list and managed to do everything except Rock City.

We spent Thanksgiving in Ft. Lauderdale at my BIL & SIL's and they did an amazing job hosting everyone.

December
December was my favorite month this year - we got to spend our first Christmas in the new house, we spent Christmas in Chattanooga and we enjoyed doing so many Christmas-y things together.

Stephen had another successful launch, I did some more decorating, I wrapped some gifts and we got to see my friend Kathryn and her husband, Bo.

I shared our Christmas card.

We enjoyed lots of baking, Christmas movies and walks around the neighborhood to look at lights.

We went to three Christmas parties.

I kicked off the last week of work with a Christmas brunch.

We went to Disney and had our annual Disney Christmas date night. The next morning, we woke up and had our Christmas together.

On the 21st, we drove up to Chattanooga to spend Christmas with my family. We ended up staying 10 days. After coming home, we unpacked, put away the Christmas decorations and brought in the new year with some sparkling cider :) Saturday, we are headed to Stephen's parents house to do Christmas with them before returning to work on Monday.

I love having this little blog because every year, I'm reminded of the things that happened throughout the year that I forgot. I also love getting to connect with so many amazing ladies - I cannot wait to see how this blog grows into the next year.

The Lord truly blessed us with an amazing 2015. Each year keeps getting better and better and we can't wait to see what 2016 holds!